I watched this movie on PS3 streamed over from Netflix, which I can only do because Netflix doesn't provide captioning over streamed video. There is some English spoken, but not much.
It is a story of an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian resident who with each other fall in love at first sight, but are swept away by the caprice of religious wars.
2010-03-26
2010-03-25
I purchased Lost to the West a few months ago, but since then I haven't had the opportunity or time to read beyond the first few pages. I will say that I was hesitant at first to buy it hardcover, as hardcover seems better for books that are of great importance, and I'm not sure if this book is of great importance. The premise, though, is already an interesting one--the idea that the Eastern Roman Empire, long forgotten, had been the bulwark of culture protecting the Islamic expansion from the Middle East.
(Disclosure: If you use the link and buy something, I get a kickback. I'm also testing out Amazon Associates feature using Blogger in Draft.)
(Disclosure: If you use the link and buy something, I get a kickback. I'm also testing out Amazon Associates feature using Blogger in Draft.)
2010-03-22
I want to shout
I want to scream. I want to leap in jubilation! Health care reform,
the start of it, has passed. In America, people will now be able to
think of health care as guaranteed, rather than only for people with
special conditions, such as being poor enough, old enough, or a veteran.
the start of it, has passed. In America, people will now be able to
think of health care as guaranteed, rather than only for people with
special conditions, such as being poor enough, old enough, or a veteran.
I'm so glad. This is the change I voted for. This is the change I
supported. Wrung our nerve to the last, but this is the climax. Just
like in 2008, with 6 long months of presidential primary fight,
finally ending! This was a parallel strategy!
2010-03-07
Inorganic Chemistry
I have a book titled “Descriptive Inorganic, Coordination, and Solid-State Chemistry” and I think it is a perfect title for the book. The teacher who taught our class started with Chapter 1 and moved to Chapter 9, and it was probably the best way to start. Chapter 9 is a sort of reintroduction of General Chemistry, dealing with the commonest elements found in nature, Group I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII, from alkali metals to the nobel gases, excluding the transition elements (those that add d or f orbitals).
After reaching the end of the book, for the second quarter, we went to Chapter 2, to discuss what our teacher called “the deep dark forests of the transitions elements.” Unlike the eight groups, in which all the elements can be defined in periodicity--the transitions metals are all different and behave in strange ways. If we were able to name lithium, sodium, and other elements down the group as alkali metal, beryllium, magnesium, and other elements as alkaline earth elements, and boron and carbon groups as unique mainly for the step-wise metal-nonmetal boundary, the pnictogen elements, the chalcogen elements, the halogen elements, and the nobel gases, we cannot easily name the transitions elements as anything other than transitions. We get elements as varied as copper and gold, plutonium and uranium, manganese and molybdenum, and others.
Chapter 9 onwards dealt with inorganic chemistry, even carbon. Chapter 2 to 5 dealt with coordination chemistry, unique because the transitions metals are coordinated by various ligands that can be charged or polar. Solid-state chemistry, which we are getting into, is about how crystals are arranged at microscopic size.
It is all descriptive, and infrequently do we get into the nitty gritty details of calculations or energy or physics. I see why this is a capstone class for general chemistry undergraduate majors, and I wished I had the opportunity to take this class earlier.
After reaching the end of the book, for the second quarter, we went to Chapter 2, to discuss what our teacher called “the deep dark forests of the transitions elements.” Unlike the eight groups, in which all the elements can be defined in periodicity--the transitions metals are all different and behave in strange ways. If we were able to name lithium, sodium, and other elements down the group as alkali metal, beryllium, magnesium, and other elements as alkaline earth elements, and boron and carbon groups as unique mainly for the step-wise metal-nonmetal boundary, the pnictogen elements, the chalcogen elements, the halogen elements, and the nobel gases, we cannot easily name the transitions elements as anything other than transitions. We get elements as varied as copper and gold, plutonium and uranium, manganese and molybdenum, and others.
Chapter 9 onwards dealt with inorganic chemistry, even carbon. Chapter 2 to 5 dealt with coordination chemistry, unique because the transitions metals are coordinated by various ligands that can be charged or polar. Solid-state chemistry, which we are getting into, is about how crystals are arranged at microscopic size.
It is all descriptive, and infrequently do we get into the nitty gritty details of calculations or energy or physics. I see why this is a capstone class for general chemistry undergraduate majors, and I wished I had the opportunity to take this class earlier.
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